Santa Fe Writing Retreat. I implemented the last revision notes for “Thin Air” yesterday, which meant that I’d actually finished the first full draft of the Jump Space book. It’s not done — it’ll get workshopped and edited from here. I may cut a story or two, I may even write a new story or two, if my critiquers think the book needs it. But for now, done?
It doesn’t feel quite real — I wrote and published the first story in this book, also titled “Jump Space,” in 2009. So about 12 years in the making, this project. Kavi is 12 years old, so I guess that’s what it takes for me to write a book and raise a child (and have a day job throughout) at the same time. 
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I’ve now sent it out to one of my writing workshops — I’m going to see if the other one has time to look at it too, for the February meeting.
I wouldn’t mind having a few more eyes on it, so if you’re interested in reading a 113,431 word SF book (it’s not a novel, maybe it’s a novel-in-stories, it’s hard to say) and getting me feedback by February 15th, let me know? I’m appending below the questions I sent to my workshop, to let you know what kind of feedback I’m looking for. If interested, please comment below with your preferred e-mail for this.
1) Do any of the stories feel significantly weaker than the others, and should be pulled? (I’m unlikely to pull anything from The Stars Change section, so this mostly applies to the stand-alones at the beginning.)
2) Does the book as a whole feel coherent? I’m a little concerned about the opening stories in particular, since it isn’t necessarily clear what the connections are between them and the rest of the book. (They do all eventually connect, but not necessarily explicitly in this book, gah.)
3) Are there gaps, holes in the narrative, where you feel another story would help fill in? (For example, “I’d like a story about Amara’s adoption.”)
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Done. Whew. Guess this retreat was worth doing.
